KINGSTON, Ont. — Beth Israel Congregation’s main sanctuary can be humbling when it is flooded with light from the domed skylight overhead, but for those who pray here, there is always the feeling that it is home.
Beth Israel Congregation
From May 14 to 16, Beth Israel will hold a homecoming to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The celebration is more than a milestone – it’s also a testament to the life of a Jewish community in a small city, a community that remains vibrant despite the fact that its members are slowly declining, a fact that also raises questions about the future of Kingston’s Jewish community.
“How will [the community] be 100 years from now?” ponders Marion Meyer, a retired Queen’s University sociology professor who has researched Kingston’s Jewish community. “It’s a very interesting question I’ve asked myself.”
The central question as the nearly 170-year-old community has evolved is about religious affiliation. Beth Israel is modern Orthodox, but that could change.
“At some point, it’s going to have to happen,” says Mayor Harvey Rosen, a former Beth Israel president and lifelong Kingstonian. “There are some serious challenges with the secularization of the Jewish community.”
In Beth Israel’s early years, Jews were deeply involved in congregational life. Today, they are more integrated into the community and serve in a number of philanthropic and public positions.
In 1842, brothers Abraham and Samuel Nordheimer became the first known Jews in Kingston, but they moved to Toronto in 1844. The first Jews to settle here were Celina and Simon Oberndorffer, who came in 1857 and were instrumental in founding the first congregation in 1908.
On Oct. 10, 1910, the community laid the cornerstone for the first Beth Israel building. The local Jewish community paid for most of the building, but the wider community chipped in 20 per cent of the cost. In a sense, the evolution of Kingston’s Jews into a community that now leads many philanthropic organizations can be seen as a means to give back to the city that helped provide Jews with a place of their own.
“It has been an incredibly active community,” says Vivien Ludwin, one of the congregants who researched the synagogue’s history through its archives. Ludwin says the archives provided examples of Jews involved in public life beginning with Celina and Simon Oberndorffer. Simon was an alderman, the first of several Kingston Jews to serve in public office.
Historically, Kingston’s Jews were merchants from eastern Europe. Material from the synagogue’s archives shows that board meeting minutes were recorded in Hebrew and Yiddish. Today, Jews still have a strong commercial presence in Kingston, but they are more diverse, including a number of South Africans.
For many years, the congregation was housed downtown on Queen Street, but today it’s on Centre Street in one of Kingston’s oldest residential areas, near the university and Lake Ontario. Community events, like Israel Independence Day, attract large crowds to Beth Israel.
The synagogue started out as a place of worship, but has become the de facto Jewish community centre, Meyer says.
The lifeblood of the community partially flows through Queen’s. Each year, Jewish students take part in synagogue life at Beth Israel or through the Hillel events held at Hillel House next door to the synagogue. The university has also attracted a number of Jewish intellectuals who hold positions at the university, including the principal, Daniel Woolf.
While Queen’s has been a saving grace for the community, a few core families who have been in the city for generations – whom Meyer describes as the “dynastic families” – also help maintain Jewish life in the city.
The number of Beth Israel members has stayed relatively steady over the years. A study Meyer conducted for the 100th anniversary found that in 2009, Beth Israel’s membership numbered 142 households. In 1976, there were 143.
Between 1976 and 2009, the religious makeup of the Jewish community in Kingston changed, according to Meyer’s research. In 1976, the majority of Beth Israel members considered themselves Conservative or Orthodox. A 2009 survey of members under the age of 60 showed only two Orthodox families. Rosen and others believe a change of religious affiliation is coming in the next few years.
Of the approximately 1,100 Jews living in Kingston, only half are affiliated with Beth Israel or Iyr HaMelech, Kingston’s Reform congregation. Both congregations are looking for a way to reach out to the others and feel the pressure to come up with an answer soon.
For now, though, the Jewish community is thriving – something that can’t be said of other small communities, Meyer says.
And it is also focused on the celebrations at hand, which include:
• the presentation and sale of a commemorative DVD, highlighting the shul’s history through its archives;
• Friday and Shabbat morning services, the latter being dedicated to Beth Israel’s 18 presidents;
• a Saturday “Deli Schmoozefest” for up to 400 expected guests;
• a Sunday concert titled “100 Years of Jewish Music” at Grant Hall on the Queen’s University campus.
“The synagogue is undergoing a massive spring cleaning, and a palpable enthusiasm is bubbling through the congregation,” says Gini Rosen, co-chair of the 100th anniversary celebrations. “There is a sense of satisfaction as well as the gift of revelation. Hidden benefits emerge from every undertaking – particularly a sense of having done something meaningful together.”
For more information, visit www.kingston-bethisrael.ca/100-years.htm.